Hobbit Garden

We call it the Hobbit Garden because it only includes small plants, and they grow on a low stone wall that presumably would be the right height for a hobbit to work on. It is actually part of the entrance way to the house and garden.

Tiny World of Roche Fleurie

Our friends Mike and Clayton visited us yesterday, and Mike took a picture of part of the garden using a feature called Tiny World. It produces an interesting effect! As usual you can enlarge by clicking on the picture. The house is on the left, where you see the screened porch and the roof.

An Iris Grass cannot Crowd out

As gardeners, we tend to think that plants like best to grow in rich loam with no competition from other plants. Of course, this is the ideal setting for many, but not all. A  few years ago I noticed I had some small iris growing and even spreading in the grass just outside the garden proper. I did not know where that iris came from and what it was until last year when a friend identified it for me.

Chomp, Chomp, Chomp in the Night

These last few nights, we have been wakened up a few times by a gnawing sound. The first few times I did not venture out to see what it was, because it was pitch dark, and, for all I knew, it might have been Ruthie, the local black bear. But the last time it happened, it was dawn, and there was already a fair bit of daylight, so I set out to investigate taking my camera along. It turned out that the racket was made by a porcupine chewing on a piece of plywood!

The Dirty Iris

This post is about an old-fashioned iris, not one that is very attractive, but one that has a lot of pretension. It is also about gardening friends exchanging plants and, finally, about Joséphine de Beauharnois, Napoléon’s first wife.

Helping a Lady Cross the Road

Turtles are not rare around here, but you see them only in June when they leave the safety of their swamps to head for mating grounds and to lay their eggs. They often end up on the road, where they are at great risk of being run over. This one had decided to cross the road.

Eastern Painted Turtle

Pavement Gardening (2)

As I explained in a previous post, the paths in the garden are my version of a rock garden. Tucked in between the stones are small plants, some that survives foot traffic, and others that keep to the edges not to be trampled on. Mazus reptans is one of the tough plants that has been spreading nicely over the years.  I end the post with a mystery plant you can perhaps help me identify.

Mazus reptans spreading

Mazus reptans close-up

Large Mulleins

The larger cultivated mulleins are rather close to their wild cousins, and I suppose that is why they are not particularly popular. They look too much like what most people think of as a weed. In a way, they have to be treated as weeds to be successful. That is to say, they do not look good when they are too regimented.

Some Wild Flowers in Bloom in the Bruce Peninsula

The Bruce Peninsula, where Roche Fleurie is located, is well-known for its flora and fauna.  Because there are few people and no industry, and because agriculture is very marginal the soil being thin and poor in most places, plants and animals that are rare in other areas of Ontario are relatively common here. Some of our wild flowers, like the Trillium grandiflorum below,  are to be found in many parts of eastern North America. But some others, scarce in most places, are abundant here.